WWE Smackdown/ECW house show
June 16, 2008
New Castle, Australia at the New Castle Entertainment Centre
Report by Adam Berry, PWTorch.com reader

As per previous shows on the Australian tour, the event starts with an awkwardly phrased, yet undeniably popular, announcement that facilitates Undertaker's participation in the main event despite his gimmicked retirement loss to Edge at One Night Stand. That WWE would burn the good-will generated with the legitimate retirement match at WrestleMania with a transparently false retirement match only a few months later still astounds me.

(1) Kane defeated Shelton Benjamin with a chokeslam counter to the Stinger splash to retain the ECW Title. Barely more than a squash match. Benjamin deserves more and it is this type of booking that is tarnishing his potentially valuable gimmick and shot at upper-mid-card success. They need to feed this man some wins and quickly.

(2) C.M. Punk defeated Chuck Palumbo with the GTS. CM Punk remains over, despite being booked as an also-ran since winning Money in the Bank, and Palumbo generated more heat than expected (in addition to a humorous “put your hat back on” chant). A solid encounter made better by an enthusiastic crowd.

(3) The Miz & John Morrison defeated Funaki & Jamie Noble with Morrison’s Moonlight Drive to retain the Smackdow Tag Titles. Despite the predictability of the result, the teams put on an entertaining and well received match that delivered equal parts comedy and action. The Miz and Morrison strip-show drew chants of “you are wankers” from the crowd, which they answered with a beautifully executed slingshot back-breaker into a leg-drop tandem manoeuvrer. The finish came when Noble’s double-knee gut-buster was nullified by a distracted referee, allowing Morrison time to hit his sharp rolling neck-breaker for the win.

(4) Michelle McCool defeated Natalya (w/Victoria) via submission to rolling leg lock. The crowd was practically non-existent for the first five minutes of the match, but the women grafted hard and the audience rewarded the effort. Both Natalya and McCool looked impressive throughout the match, with a nice surfboard executed by Natalya and a novel flipping neck-breaker from McCool (who has improved no-end in the last year). A single women’s division across both brands could put on matches of similarly high calibre on a consistent basis, but the talent will surely be stretched too thin in the current configuration.

(5) Finlay (w/Hornswoggle) defeated The Great Khali via a shillelagh to the head. Hornswoggle remains super-over and his relationship with Finlay remains oddly endearing. Though the chants of “you can’t wrestle” directed at Khali are perhaps not misdirected, they are certainly less valid than they were a year ago – he has evolved into a tolerable presence. The match saw water pistols, juggling, a low-blow from Hornswoggle and a shillelagh shot, yet still managed to entertain the crowd.

(6) Kofi Kingston defeated Chavo Guerrero (w/Bam Neely) via Trouble in Paradise. Surely a minor upset here, but Kingston’s momentum is increasing and the crowd seems consistently behind him (could it be because he feels fresh? Perhaps there is something in that, WWE). An entertaining match, that saw Chavo regain his heat via a post-match beat-down with Bam. The rousing response to Kingston’s recovery again signals big things for the young Jamaican.

(7) Vladimir Kozlov defeated Shannon Moore in a squash. The packaging of Kozlov is perfect and shows how well WWE can promote someone when there is a singular vision for the performer. The spotlight, lack of entrance music, short and methodical matches and Kozlov’s lack of emotion tell you the story of the character in just a few minutes. His matches are yet to reveal enough about his work, but the framework for a successful run is there. Shannon Moore and the other cruiserweights must be devastated by the introduction of a second women’s division and should hope that TNA is feeling in the mood to expand an already over-sized roster.

(8) Undertaker & Matt Hardy & Batista defeated Edge & MVP & Mark Henry with Undertaker’s Tombstone piledriver. Devastating pops for the entire face squadron, and for the Undertaker in particular. Impressive heat for Edge and MVP, with both playing up to the crowd in archetypal form. An enjoyable, though relatively brief, match came to an end when Batista hit Mark Henry with a spine-buster, Matt Hardy took-out MVP with a Twist of Fate and the Undertaker finished Edge with the tombstone to gain some small measure of revenge for his “retirement”. The crowd reaction for the finishing sequence was astonishing.

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